Speech-based input is often used to trigger various actions on electronic devices. For example, some mobile telephones allow for one or more voice commands to trigger various operations. A user may call a contact by speaking a command and the name of a contact stored in the user's address book. In addition, some global position system (“GPS”) devices allow a user to enter certain commands via speech input. For example, a user may speak the phrase “Go Home” and the GPS receiver may, in turn, provide directions from the current location to the user's home.
Typically, traditional speech-input capable devices require an exact match between a spoken phrase and a “carrier phrase” that corresponds to a desired action. The devices typically include a list of predefined carrier phrases that each correspond to a particular action. For example, a carrier phrase for obtaining directions on a GPS device may be “Navigate to” followed by an address or a name of a location. If the user speaks one of the predefined carrier phrases, the device can recognize the carrier phrase and perform the corresponding action. However, if the spoken phrase is not included in the list of predefined carrier phrases, the action will not be triggered even if the spoken phrase has the same or a similar meaning as the predetermined carrier phrase. For example, the phrase “Navigate to” may be recognized by a GPS device, while the phrase “Drive to” is not.
This use of predefined carrier phrases requires a user to learn the appropriate phrases for use with a particular device or application. However, many users are not willing to invest the time to learn these phrases and therefore do not take advantage of this feature. In addition, users may become frustrated if they speak a phrase close to, but not exactly matching one of the predefined carrier phrases. For example, the user may speak the phrase “Navigate me to” instead of “Navigate to” and become frustrated when the phrase is not recognized by the device. Therefore, a need exists in the art for an improved means for determining users' intended actions based on speech input.